The past week has been full of reminders about things I need to remind myself about.

• When writing a new story feels like a slog at the beginning…
   
  Reminder: This is normal. I often need to write about 1,000 words to get into the characters’ heads and the flow of the story.
   
  Another reminder: It doesn’t matter how clear the story is in my head. When I first start a new story, it may feel slow and like it will never go anywhere. But it will. 🙂
   
• When I feel stuck at the very beginning of the story, and don’t know enough about the story to feel I can even start it…
   
  Reminder: Try writing an outline. Just because I don’t do much outlining for most of my stories doesn’t mean it isn’t useful for some of them.
   
• When I’m stalling on writing a story/scene because something feels wrong with the point of view character…
   
  Reminder: Does this character have a problem? If not, can you give them one? And if you can’t, perhaps they’re not the right character for the point of view character.

You’d think I’d remember all of this, as well as the other things I reminded myself of recently, but have since forgotten (reminder: write them down next time). Apparently knowing something doesn’t mean that I remember it when I need to. 🙂